Product Details

• Actors: Grégoire Colin, Alice Houri, Jacques Nolot, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Vincent Gallo
• Directors: Claire Denis
• Writers: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau
• Producers: Françoise Guglielmi, Georges Benayoun
• Format: Color, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Yorker Video
• VHS Release Date: May 12, 1998
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1567301444
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #353,896 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Warm, tender, and poetically vague, Claire Denis's French feature Nenette and Boni taps into a rarely dramatized emotion: affection between brother and sister. The gangly, sweetly distant Grégoire Colin (Before the Rain) is Boni, a lonely young man in Marseilles, where he makes pizzas for a living and has highly sexual, dough-related dreams about the beautiful owner (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) of the corner bakery. When his fragile younger sister, Nenette (Alice Houri), arrives, Boni is shaken out of his fantasies by the need to care for another human being; Nenette, too, has a bun in the oven--a baby she's expecting any minute.

With her gift for describing the emotional undercurrents and unpredictable crossings of urban life (demonstrated by her feature I Can't Sleep), Denis creates a vivid, three-dimensional portrait of a small village within a big city, and the film's mood of quiet concern is nicely accentuated by a memorable score from the band Tindersticks. --Dave Kehr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching and deep, November 18, 2000

By 

"christine32g" (CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nenette and Boni [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film was excellent. The director allows the viewer to become comfortable with the characters, and then adds abstract information to complicate the plot. The viewer feels uncertain and confused at some points in the film, but that is the brilliance of this piece of work. This film keeps the viewer stimulated by using visual effects. Also there is a strong sense of motion. Sometimes it is difficult to understand what is suppose to be a dream, and what is actually reality. The film is basically centered around a brother and sister relationship with a few added complications. This relationship is very odd, but realistic and touching. The ending is very vague, but that is reality. The viewer is left with a deep feeling of some kind, it is very difficult to explain. This film is a pure representation of society, economy, and morality. The director puts the viewer face to face with the hardships of everyday. life.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars quel fantastic french film!, October 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Nenette and Boni [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is one of my most favorite french films. The cinematography is excellent, for one thing. The way Denis consistently has a nack of letting us feel as though we know and understand her characters is amazing. Mixed with so many emotions - its sensitivity and dramatic ending (all too common in a generic sense in many french films) leaves one with a feeling of expectancy for something, but you're not sure what. I don't know. You've just got to watch the film.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good service, September 2, 2011

By 

B. Judell "I'm Not Cocteau" (New York City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nenette + Boni (DVD)

Haven't viewed DVD yet, but order arrived quickly. Happy with service. Jumping with joy. Doing handstands. Wow! Gee whilickers! Hurray!